Laughing In The Magazine Aisle
i came across a great comical and on target piece about the absurdity of what society promotes to us. But it also has a serious point which matters for society at large as well as for those of us concerned about the impact pornography is having on our culture.
It’s not written specifically about pornography, but the author’s points still apply. The issues this author raises about the messages women receive which tell them they are not enough, certainly crossover into the way pornography operates in our culture.
What advertising tells us all is that whatever we are, it’s not enough.
We should be fitter, thinner, sexier, smarter, richer, better at business, better at parenting, better at home decorating, and on and on. Advertising preys upon our innate insecurities regarding who we are. Pornography amps that to another level altogether.
Pornography’s big message to women is that they aren’t enough sexually. And because our sexuality is such a deep part of who we were created to be and it reflects God’s design in a unique way, any attack on our sexuality hits us more profoundly than many others. A woman may be quite content with knowing that she is not Martha Stewart, but the thought that she is inadequate as a lover to her man is something else altogether.
The fact is, it’s not just women who feel inadequate as a result of pornography. Men can feel inadequate about their own bodies as a result of watching porn, and more studies are revealing this as the case. In porn, most of the time, the wimps are still wimps and the studs are still studs.
But there is an added dimension to the relationship between pornography and inadequacy in men. For many men, and this was true of me when i watched porn, a deep sense of inadequacy — of simply not being enough — is the impetus to involvement with porn . Porn always, for a brief time, made me feel very adequate; potent. That was, until, pornography started to fail to deliver on its “promise” to make me feel like a man.
We need to get good at laughing at the advertisements and the magazine covers that scream to us and beckon us into total absurdity. And men especially, need to start laughing at the ridiculous things that get put on the covers of so-called men’s magazines such as Maxxim. Men are — or should be — more than their libidos. They should be insulted by the advertising which treats men as sex objects by pushing the same old things: T&A.
Get insulted and then laugh as you walk away from the magazine aisle with the knowledge that you have true strength.
Intentional Warriors 
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